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 three stickers with ease, and apparently without any great exertion.

Hoover returned to the slab in form, and closed the inning with three straight to his credit.

For Bancroft, hope revived when Bangs started the eighth by obtaining a pass, the first to be secured from Locke since the initial inning. Hoover strode out, thirsting for a hit. Had the stab of his eyes been deadly, Tom Locke must have dropped, mortally pierced, in his tracks.

With the head of the list coming up, Riley had called for a sacrifice, and, much as he hated to do it, Hoover sought to obey. He did not even foul the first ball he tried to bunt; but Oulds, in his haste to get Bangs going down, made a bad throw, and the runner reached second base.

"Ah!" thought Jock exultantly. "Now I can hit it out!"

But he could not hit it out, although he did his best. Locke sent him to the bench, fanned and furious.

Harney, however, batted a lingerer into the diamond, and little Labelle eagerly overran it, which put two on the sacks.

It was still a game, and the Bancroft crowd was beginning to froth, while the Kingsbridgers felt their nerves shaking again. With two on, only